LONG ISLAND JOURNAL

By DIANE KETCHAM

Published: May 20, 1990

The Latter-Day Scribe

PICTURE a scribe and many visualize a monk from the Middle Ages, quill in hand, laboring over a sacred parchment. ''Ah, the poor monks,'' said Dr. Eric Ray, a 20th-century scribe. ''They didn't have any windows where they worked and with their hemp robes, well, they were valuable to them since they usually had only one, so many wrote in the nude.''

Today, scribes use air-conditioning. ''It is good for the parchment and it's good for me,'' Dr. Ray said. The quill and the laborious work, however, are still standard.

Dr. Ray is one of only 25 master scribes in the world who specialize in writing Torahs. An Englishman, he has spent the last few years working in New York and on Long Island. The Torah he has been writing for the Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation will be unveiled today. It was given to the temple by Richard and and Francine Slade in memory of Audrey Slade.

To become a scribe, or sofer as it is known in Hebrew, takes years of preparation. ''We have 18 years of apprenticeship,'' Dr. Ray said. Once the craft is learned, things still move slowly. With its 600,000 words and 613 commandments, a Torah usually takes three years to write, Dr. Ray said. ''Some take seven.''

The work Dr. Ray has put in on the Old Westbury Torah should serve as a model to younger members of the congregation, said Rabbi Barry Dov Lerner. ''I want them to appreciate the parchment and the ink and the writing and the caring,'' the rabbi said, ''and the years of preparation.

''I hope this will generate an appreciation that when you do something you do it magnificently. You don't just do it, you do it right.''

To do it right religiously, the writing materials for a Torah must be of the natural world, Dr. Ray said. ''You can't use a typewriter or a computer.'' You can't even use a pen. The quills used on Torahs are made of goose and turkey feathers.

The parchment is the skin of an animal - a young bull. ''We used to have vegetarian Torahs but they got green mold and didn't last,'' the scribe said.

Strict tradition must be followed in writing a Torah. ''You don't erase,'' Dr. Ray said, ''you scratch out with a stick. And you can't scratch off a divine name. If you make a mistake with a divine name you have to start all over again. So we do the Torah in segments.''

There is a dress code when working on a Torah, he said. Besides wearing a tallis, or prayer shawl, the scribe must dress respectfully. Reeboks would be out. ''What are those?'' he asked. ''Sneakers? I only recently learned what they are,'' he said.

Dr. Ray can copy any Torah script and make it look the same, he said, even though there are 2,000 different styles of scriptwriting in Hebrew. But he plays down his skill. ''God is the author,'' he said. ''We're only copiers.''

Munch and Mow

Stanley Orenkewicz of Bayport is cutting his lawn. It should take about a week, he estimates. It takes that long because Mr. Orenkewicz does not use a standard mower. He uses sheep - three to be exact.

''I move them two or three times a day so they do different spots,'' he said as he and a visitor sat in lawn chairs watching the sheep-mowers trim the backyard. Chained to six-foot leads, the sheep seemed more than content to munch away.

''We're lucky the grass is growing well because we had so much rain,'' Mr. Orenkewicz said. ''The grass is so young and tender they do a nice close job. When it gets older they are more picky, so I have to use a real mower once in a while.''

For the summer the sheep will live entirely by grazing on his acre of lawn, Mr. Orenkewicz said. The former postmaster of Bayport has had sheep for 30 years. ''They live to be about 16,'' he said. The three he owns are now 8, 8 and 1. ''I have all females,'' he said. ''Males when they get old get kind of mean.''

Mowing by sheep has several benefits, Mr. Orenkewicz says. ''When I use a regular mower it cuts the grass about two inches high. The sheep cut it down to a half inch.'' Plus, he said, ''they fertilize at the same time.''

Lighthouses in the Dark

To celebrate the bicentennial of the Coast Guard, the Postal Service recently issued lighthouse stamps. Howard Koslov of East Norwich designed the stamps. The Long Islander said he was honored to be selected. He only wishes a Long Island lighthouse had been selected as well.

''If I had any leverage I would have used it,'' Mr. Koslov said. ''You know how the government works. It's all committees. The committee was supplied a list of lighthouses. The finalists were selected on three qualifications: historical importance, architectural importance and geographical importance. They picked 10 and then went down to the final 6: five stamps and another lighthouse on the cover of the stamp booklet.''

None of Long Island's 16 lights even made the final 10. ''There is nothing from Long Island,'' Mr. Koslov said, ''except me.''

Aristocrat of Ducks

How do you define a Long Island duck? ''We say a Long Island duck has to be hatched, raised and processed on Long Island,'' said Judy Quick, an official with the United States Department of Agriculture.